Brian Hamilton

Greek New Testament Vocabulary Lists

Although I think the fastest and most effective way to learn new vocabulary is just to read, reading something with too much new vocabulary is painful and tedious. So I’ve found it helpful to use flashcards as a pre-reading exercise, to introduce me to the most frequent new words I’m going to encounter before I actually encounter them. Usually, seeing the flashcard two or three times is enough to help me recognize the word while I’m reading without having to stop and look it up. After I’ve read through the text once or twice, I can stop drilling the flashcards.

It is easy to find frequency lists for the whole Greek New Testament, but I wanted to take smaller bites. So, using James Tauber’s fantastic vocabulary tools, I created a few smaller frequency lists. All these lists exclude words used over 25 times in the Greek New Testament as a whole; those words are included in the “Core GNT Vocab List.” Each list includes some indication of how many words one needs to learn to cover around 90% of the texts’ vocabulary, which for me is plenty for a comfortable read-through.

So, the lists, in something resembling a decent reading order:

• Core Greek New Testament Vocabulary
• Johannine Literature (Gospel of John, 1–3 John, Revelation)
• Pauline Starter Pack (Philippians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Philemon)
• Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke)
• Luke–Acts
• Pauline Letters (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon)
  • Or for the purists: Paul’s undisputed letters
• Other Letters (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, and Jude).

The way I personally have used these is to (1) read through the list down to my desired coverage level, deleting any words I already recognize; (2) create flashcards in Anki for the remaining words, with the Greek word and an audio clip of its pronunciation on the front, and an image of the word’s meaning on the back^*; (3) work through the flashcards until I have seen each card at least once^**; then finally (4) start reading, continuing to work the flashcards as I go. After I have finished my first read-through, it is generally more helpful to re-read the text than it is to keep drilling decontextualized words.

^* I like to use images so that the sense of the word stays a little fuzzy. That way, instead of overdetermining the word with a particular English gloss, I can let its meaning gradually emerge from context while reading. Not all words lend themselves to images, so I still use a gloss where needed.

^** Again, the point is not actually to memorize the word but just to expose myself to it, so that context and fuzzy recollection is enough to construct meaning as I read.